The first one really stands out for me: it conveys a sense of peace and place to me. I don't think it is necessarily too dark, but perhaps it is a bit contrasty if the intent is indeed to convey a sense of peace.

I really love the tones on the leaves in the upper-centre, but that draws my eye right into a somewhat dark and blocky region. I think you can probably improve the smoothness of tonal transitions, especially in the upper-left and lower-right corners.

The third one has a lot of interesting detail in the foreground tree, but the tonal relationship between that tree and the much brighter temple essentially make the former into negative space. I think the elements need to be better balanced, without making them indistinct in contrast.

1/Tree - I like the concept of this one with the pool of light at the start of the steps. you may want to look at some of the toning in this image though. The large patches of sky upper right behind the two trees is particularly strong and distracts from the image. Also the two trees on the right have a lot of detail in the trunks, but this is lost in the shadows. Selectively increasing brightness both of these trunks and also some of the foliage on the left and right will give a much richer image. I would also consider cropping some of the left and top to bring more of a focus on the top of the steps. At the moment the focal point is lost somewhere in the middle of the image, moving the focal point off centre, IMHO, would strengthen the image.

2/ It's a good straight up shot of a Japanese temple. I know how hard it can be to shoot these things when the sun is strong and the shadows are deep. Would suggest you look at your verticals, the temples have very interesting shapes and woodwork. For the former you could have taken the temple from further away to minimise the effect of convergence, or done some adjustments in PS. If taken from further away it would have been nice to see more of the temple without clipping the structure. A bit of shadow highlight tool and contrast adjustment to show off the temple interior and woodwork would also be nice.

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3/ As with 2 there is some great woodwork and carving to show, however, it all looks a bit muddy and lost. Suggest again that you need to adjust the toning of the image - particularly as you have chosen to do B&W rather than colour - to bring out the building more clearly.

I agree with most of them, except perhaps about the temple's converging lines and crop.

I agree with you that the "proper way" to shoot this would have been from farther away with a long lens, and I probably have such a shot somewhere actually, but I personnally like this interpretation. I feel that it brings out the cavings and details of the roof more.

The RAW file has a lot of details in the shadows (this is a multilple exposure overlay in fact) and it would indeed be good to use that information more.